Wood-decay type and fungal guild dominance across a North American log transplant experiment

Francois L Maillard, Michelle A. Jusino, Erin E Andrews, Molly A Moran, Grace J. Vaziri, Mark T. Banik, Nicolas Fanin, Carl C. Trettin, Daniel L. Lindner, Jonathan S. Schilling

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

We incubated 196 large-diameter aspen (Populus tremuloides), birch (Betula papyrifera), and pine (Pinus taeda) logs on the FACE Wood Decomposition Experiment encompassing eight climatically-distinct forest sites in the United States. We sampled dead wood from these large-diameter logs after 2 to 6 y of decomposition and determined wood rot type as a continuous variable using the lignin loss/density loss ratio (L/D) and assessed wood-rotting fungal guilds using high-throughput amplicon sequencing (HTAS) of the ITS-2 marker. We found L/D values in line with a white rot dominance in all three tree species, with pine having lower L/D values than aspen and birch. Based on HTAS data, white rot fungi were the most abundant and diverse wood-rotting fungal guild, and soft rot fungi were more abundant and diverse than brown rot fungi in logs with low L/D values. For aspen and birch logs, decay type was related to the wood density at sampling. For the pine logs, decay type was associated with the balance between white and brown/soft rot fungi abundance and OTU richness. Our results demonstrate that decay type is governed by biotic and abiotic factors, which vary by tree species.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number101151
JournalFungal Ecology
Volume59
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge support provided by the U.S. Department of Energy ( 16SC503106 to USDA Forest Service ) and the National Science Foundation ( DEB 1754603 to Michigan Technological University ; DEB 1754616 to University of Minnesota ). Funding also provided by the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station .

Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge support provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (16SC503106 to USDA Forest Service) and the National Science Foundation (DEB 1754603 to Michigan Technological University; DEB 1754616 to University of Minnesota). Funding also provided by the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors

Keywords

  • Brown rot
  • Decay type
  • FACE
  • HTAS
  • Metabarcoding
  • Soft rot
  • White rot
  • Wood rot fungi

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